Tourism Winnipeg defends FIFA fan experience, tournament a success
All of Tourism Winnipeg's partners are seeing an increase in business, Sturk-Nadeau says
Winnipeg FIFA tournament has been a raging success for the city's tourism industry, officials tell CBC News.
Fans and some business managers in Winnipeg had expressed concern about how the city was presented throughout the international event. Chantal Sturk-Nadeau, senior vice president of Tourism Winnipeg, said Friday that she's only heard positive feedback.
"When I look at all aspects of tourism and who our partners are, they're all very very happy," Sturk-Nadeau said.
Fans are out and about
All of the city's attractions including museums, the zoo and tours are seeing more people than usual, so are businesses like restaurants, she said.
Hotels have been booked solid since January, Sturk-Nadeau said, they knew this would be a success for the industry before the guests even arrived, thanks in big part to Winnipeg hosting the American women's team.
Tourism Winnipeg provided hotels with visitor guides and lists of events and their staff received tailored training to be able to deal with the influx of visitors.
Different events, different expectations
Sturk-Nadeau said part of the problem with naysayers might be that there are locals that are comparing some very different events.
FIFA has made the decision to keep the tourist events localized to the stadium area.
If the increase in business and sold-out soccer games aren't a success to some, Sturk-Nadeau said they have also been receiving positive comments at the matches.
"That's the impression we're getting, and I'm not just saying that. I think we had one person say at the stadium, 'well I don't know where the ATM is.' And they were mad. Well, okay that's one out of the hundreds we had that day," she said.
First Nations absent from FIFA website
The Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg isn't happy the FIFA website makes no mention of First Nations.
The website has a three-paragraph description of Winnipeg's history on its site, where the city is featured as one of the destinations. But it doesn't mention First Nations.
"It's fascinating they wouldn't acknowledge or recognize our community here," said Damon Johnston, the president of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg. "We're known as the aboriginal capital of Canada."
Johnston said it was a lost opportunity. Now, the council is offering impromptu lessons to tourists at The Forks – including explaining the significance of Oodena Circle at The Forks, a monument for 6,000 years of aboriginal history in the area.
Elenora Kazatzis is in town from Sydney, Australia.
She said she wishes Australia, which has a large indigenous population, had similar monuments.
"We're not that lucky back home, even though we have over 200 different aboriginal communities," she said. "Things like this, this spiritual meditation area – is just absolutely wonderful."
Johnston said he wished FIFA would have acknowledged the city's First Nations heritage.
FIFA officials released the following statement Friday night:
The FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015 has made every effort to profile the uniqueness of all six official host cities. The official host city websites provide relevant spectator information to provide the best possible fan experience for residents of the official host city as well as visitors. Links to the respective tourism organizations in the official host cities were included to provide background information.
In addition, an official host city video was created to provide a profile of all six official host cities that has featured prominently in the infotainment program within all six stadiums. This video was premiered at the FIFA World Cup Brazil as part of the official media briefing at the competition and was broadcast on TSN's live coverage of the official draw which occurred in December 2014.
Particular to the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba's Aboriginal community was featured. The link to the video can be found here: Canada's Women's World Cup Host Cities.